There it goes – yet another bit of rubbish disappeared into the gaping mouth of Holle Bolle Gijs. Again and again, the two little girls ran from their picnic spot to the familiar bin in Efteling. Their laughter so loud, it was contagious. The newest Holle Bolle Gijs – there are a few dotted around the park – is Brother Gijs, a deceased monk who doesn’t just say ‘Paper please’ and ‘Thank you’, but also recites little rhymes in a deep voice. I doubt the girls understood everything he said: ‘A sheet of paper or piece of writing is a great gift to me’ and ‘paper is patient, but my patience is no longer infinite’. Incidentally, in addition to paper, Gijs also readily accepts chewing gum, cold chips and banana peels.
I had my work bag with me in Efteling. The girls asked if I had anything I wanted to get rid of – fodder for Gijs. In my bag, I saw a crumpled old copy of Observant. I hesitated for a moment, but ended up giving them a sweet wrapper.
A little further along, a young man sat scrolling on his phone, clearly on the Efteling app, as he shouted that the queue for the Baron was “only 20 minutes”. He was gone in a flash. You used to have to carry around a map. Now, Efteling is completely digital. You can even join a virtual queue for the newest ride, Danse Macabre. Just one click of a button (in the app) to reserve a spot, and then you get a notification when it’s your turn.
Once I got back home, I emptied my rucksack. I put the crumpled old Observant on the table. If I had been in Efteling a year ago, I’m sure I would have just fed it to Gijs. But since the news that we’re stopping the paper version after the summer, I’ve started to love it more, like it’s a collector’s item I don’t want to lose. There really is something incredibly charming about paper.
In the words of Holle Bolle Gijs, I would like to say, ‘Thank you’, reader, for devouring our paper for 46 years. After the summer, you will never again find a crumpled old Observant in your bag, in the train, on a desk or on an empty chair in a lecture room. You’ll find Observant in your inbox, as a newsletter – might take some getting used to – but just as indispensable and present as the newspaper.
The editor-in-chief gives a look behind the scenes at the editorial office